Operation: Make Kageyama Laugh
by quidditchchick004
Summary: No one on the team has ever heard Kageyama laugh before, so Hinata, Tanaka, and Nishinoya make it a mission to figure out how to finally get it out of him.


Operation: Make Kageyama Laugh

"Oi, Kageyama! Wait for me, I want some tosses before practice starts!" Hinata called out as Kageyama was headed out of the door of the clubroom.

"There won't be enough time for that if you don't change faster, dumbass. You got here too late."

"It's not my fault I had cleaning duty today!"

"Then hurry up!" Kageyama left the clubroom with his usual scowl.

Hinata pouted, threw down his bag, and started to change. Sometimes he wished that he and Kageyama were in the same class so that they could always arrive at the same time, especially on cleaning duty days. It'd give them more time to warm up together before practice started.

Hinata was nearly finished changing into his gym clothes when he felt a light tap on his shoulder that made him jump; he was relieved to see that it was only Tanaka.

"Hey, Hinata. Come here for a sec." Tanaka asked in almost a whisper as he gestured to follow him to the other side of the room.

Hinata wasn't sure how to feel about the tone of Tanaka's voice, but he nodded and followed anyway. He really hoped that this wasn't some kind of a prank he was being led into, and it made him worry even more when he saw that Tanaka was walking him over to Nishinoya and he could only imagine what in the world these two might have planned.

Hinata took a defensive stance once they arrived. "So what's going on, huh? Is it prank your kouhai day or something?"

"Calm down, Shouyou." Noya laughed as he clapped a hand onto Hinata's shoulder. "We're not gonna jump you."

Hinata eased up from his stance and cocked his head to the side. "Oh. Well, then what's going on?"

Tanaka looked toward the door and then back again before leaning in closer to the other two. "So Noya-san and I were wondering…have you ever heard Kageyama laugh? I mean, like a real, genuine laugh?"

Hinata brought his finger to his mouth in thought. "You know, now that you mention it. I don't think I have. The most I've heard him do his go 'pffft' or snort or something, but those don't really count as laughs." He looked back up. "Why?"

"Well," Tanaka started, "At practice this morning when I accidentally served into the net and it bounced back and hit me in the face, everyone laughed really hard."

Hinata giggled at the memory of this morning, having been glad that it wasn't him getting hit in the face for once. "Yeah, the sound you made was really funny; even Tsukishima laughed."

"But Kageyama didn't laugh." Noya added. "I mean, he _looked_ like he was gonna laugh, but he just sort of scoffed quietly and turned away and that was the end of it."

"So that's when we realized we've never really heard Kageyama laugh before and we've been wondering about it all day! Noya-san thinks his laugh would be uncharacteristically loud, but I disagree. He seems like the kind of guy who'd have a really scary laugh…kind of like when he gave us that really creepy smile during the match against Seijou."

"Well, Kageyama has a pretty scary face sometimes, so that makes sense." Hinata agreed.

"See? I told you." Tanaka elbowed Noya in the side playfully.

"That doesn't prove anything, though! Shouyou's never heard him laugh either, so there's no way to tell for sure."

"How can we know for sure, then?" Tanaka asked.

"We'll have to try to make him laugh, of course!"

"That sounds like something easier said than done." Hinata added skeptically. "But it also sounds like a lot of fun!"

"Great!" Noya looked to Tanaka. "So what you say, Ryuu? Wanna give it a shot?"

Tanaka scrunched up his face and thought for a good long minute while Hinata and Noya waited eagerly for him to answer with wide eyes and fists clenched at their chests. Tanaka finally relaxed his face and grinned devilishly. "Let's do it!"

Hinata and Noya jumped and cheered at the decision and they stayed in the clubroom a few more minutes to decide what the first phase of their plan would be.

After a good fifteen minutes of talking, the three boys finally made their way to the gym to set the plan in motion; but not until after getting scolded by Daichi for being late even though he "clearly saw them all arrive in the clubroom on time". Thankfully, though, he only scolded them since he didn't want to waste any more practice time by making them do laps or a few sets of flying falls.

Hinata joined Kageyama on the court and received a glare instead of a greeting. "What the hell, dumbass? I thought you wanted some tosses before practice started and you still showed up fifteen minutes late?"

"Sorry, I got distracted. Just give me lots of tosses during practice, and some after practice too!"

Kageyama gave a grunt of annoyance, but Hinata grinned because he knew he'd give him the tosses anyway.

Hinata kept a close eye on Tanaka and Noya as practice went on to check when it was okay to officially start the plan; but it probably wouldn't be until they took a break since they'd have to actually talk to Kageyama off of the court for this one to work.

The first idea was a simple one that just involved telling jokes because, according to Tanaka, who doesn't love a good joke? Hinata wasn't sure about this one, however, because Kageyama didn't really seem like a joke person. If he was, surely they would have heard him laugh by now, but Tanaka insisted that they try it out.

Once Coach Ukai called for a water break, Hinata saw Tanaka walk over to him and Kageyama with Noya not too far behind him.

"Hey, Kageyama? Wanna hear a joke?" Tanaka asked with that devilish grin.

Kageyama pulled the water bottle away from his mouth. "Sure."

"Okay, so why did the tomato turn red?"

Kageyama lowered his brows and said nothing for an uncomfortable amount of time before Tanaka finally decided to respond with the answer.

"Because it saw the salad dressing!"

Kageyama didn't laugh, no surprise to Hinata, he just looked down-right confused. "But…a tomato is already red. Did it get _more_ red? Is that even possible?"

Hinata and Noya both put their hands up to their mouths immediately to stifle their laughter and Tanaka's mouth fell open in bewilderment at Kageyama's very literal response.

"Ah, um…how about I try another joke?" Tanaka stuttered out awkwardly. "Let's see…ah! What kind of crackers do firefighters like in their soup?"

"What kind?" Kageyama asked. At least he responded to this one.

"Firecrackers!" Tanaka laughed out and once again; Kageyama didn't laugh, but this time he actually looked kind of worried.

"Why would they put firecrackers in their soup?! They'd die!"

This time Hinata and Noya couldn't hold back their laughter and Noya had to physically walk away from the group to calm himself down; Tanaka just stood there with his hand to his face in utter defeat.

Hinata didn't walk away like Noya, but he kind of wished he had because he was afraid Kageyama would get mad at him for laughing. Thankfully, though, Kageyama thought they were laughing at the joke and not at his response.

"I didn't think that joke was funny at all." Kageyama mumbled once Hinata's laughing subsided and Noya had returned to the group.

Hinata stepped away from Kageyama as he sat down really quick to adjust his knee pads and got a little closer to Tanaka and Noya so they wouldn't be over heard.

"Well _that_ sure didn't work." Noya chuckled, still not completely recovered from his laughing fit earlier.

"And they were funny jokes too!" Tanaka wined. "Kageyama really is an airhead; I can't believe he took those jokes so seriously. I guess we'll have to try the next idea now…"

"Wait!" Hinata chimed in. "I think I have an idea of what jokes he might enjoy!" Hinata hurried over to where Kageyama was sitting and smiled down at him with bright eyes. Tanaka and Noya followed.

"What? Break's gonna be over soon, so no time for tosses yet."

"No, no, it's not _that_. Wanna hear another joke?"

Kageyama sighed. "What is it with you guys and jokes today?"

"It'll be funny this time, I promise."

"Hey, my jokes _were_ funny!" Tanaka grumbled.

"Fine." Kageyama agreed reluctantly.

"What does a carpenter have in common with a volleyball player?"

Kageyama's brows eased up slightly. "What?"

"They both like to hammer spikes!"

Kageyama's eyes softened a bit in comprehension and he let out a quiet snort. It wasn't quite a laugh, but it was a better response than he had to Tanaka's jokes.

"Okay, here's another one! Why shouldn't you trust volleyball players with your drinks?"

Kageyama looked genuinely interested now. "Why?"

"Because they might spike 'em!"

"Pffft." Kageyama put a hand to his mouth. Again, not quite a laugh, but they were getting close, Hinata could feel it.

"So does he only get jokes if they're volleyball related?" Hinata heard Tanaka whisper to Noya. "Why am I not surprised?"

"How about another?!" Hinata asked, and Kageyama looked more than willing to listen. "Okay, how many wing spikers does it take to screw in a lightbulb?"

"How many?"

Hinata smiled; this one would work, he _knew_ it would. "Just one. But the setter has to put it directly into their hand."

There was a pause this time, and Hinata just waited in apprehension for that laugh to burst out of Kageyama's mouth, but it never came; in fact, Kageyama just looked angry all of a sudden and grabbed at Hinata's head to squeeze it.

"Gaaah, K-Kageyama! What did I do?!"

"What the hell, dumbass? Are you saying that my tosses aren't accurate enough?"

"That's not what I meant at all! It was just a joke! A joooke!"

"Okay, you guys, stop screwing around! Water break's over!" Coach Ukai interrupted, much to Hinata's relief, and called for them all to start practice again. Kageyama grunted and let go of Hinata's head so he could return to the court.

"Damn, we came really close this time. Good idea on the volleyball jokes, Shouyou." Noya patted Hinata on the shoulder.

"Thanks. I guess I should have picked a better one to end with, though. I didn't think it'd get him so mad."

"That's okay, that just means we get to try _my_ idea next!" Noya boasted as he pointed to himself with a grin. Ukai's loud whistle made them all jump. "Ah, but not until after practice!" The three then hurried back to their positions on the court.

Practice continued and held nothing out of the ordinary; and for the first time ever, Hinata was excited for it to be over so they could move on to phase 2 of their plan to make Kageyama laugh. They impatiently waited for Daichi and Ukai to give their announcements and then rushed to put everything away, but unfortunately they couldn't catch Kageyama before he left the gym for the clubroom to change.

Hinata, Tanaka, and Noya hurried to the clubroom and needed to get to Kageyama before he started to change, or this would end up being an awkward situation. Though, Hinata thought, it was going to be awkward regardless, but it was a good idea.

Thankfully once they arrived, all Kageyama had done was take his shoes and kneepads off, but they still had to act quickly. So Hinata hurried over with Tanaka and Noya in tow, and he stood right next to Kageyama and stared until he finally acknowledged his presence.

"What do you want?"

"Say, Yamayama-kun? Are you ticklish?"

"If I was, why the hell would I tell you?"

"Ooooh, so that means you _are_!"

Kageyama sighed. "I'm not."

Tanaka grinned. "We'll be the judge of that!"

"What are you talking ab-ahhhh!" Kageyama fell back against the lockers as the other three tackled him with vicious fingers. Noya tickled his sides and Tanaka got his feet while Hinata jammed his hands underneath Kageyama's armpits. "What the hell are you, st-stop!" Kageyama wriggled around lifted his arms to push them all away, but his body wasn't cooperating.

"Hey now…" Asahi said calmly, trying to intervene. "Leave the poor guy alone, will you?"

Suga giggled. "You'd better stop soon or Daichi will get mad…"

"Ugh, you idiots are being too loud." Tsukishima groaned. "Of all days to forget my headphones at home…"

"Gaah, I said stop already!" Kageyama huffed out, and Hinata could practically hear the laugh about to emerge.

"Oi!" Came Daichi's voice finally as he walked through the door. "What the hell are you doing, knock it off!"

They couldn't stop now, just a few more seconds and—

"I said STOP!" Kageyama kicked his legs and his foot hit Tanaka right in the jaw while the other leg kneed Noya in the gut. The two groaned in pain as they were pushed away onto the floor; Kageyama finally had better control over his arms, so he wacked Hinata in the face to get him off and then immediately grabbed his head to pull him back. "Just what the hell was that, you dumbass?!" Kageyama growled as he squeezed Hinata's head.

"We just wanted to see if you were ticklish, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

"Well don't just tackle me, jeez. Tickling like that hurts!"

"Sorry, sorry!" Hinata would have lowered his head and bowed, but Kageyama still had quite the hold on his head so he couldn't move. Not that he blamed, Kageyama, though. This probably wasn't the best idea after all.

Kageyama gave Hinata one last death glare before finally releasing him, and Hinata backed away as fast as he could in case Kageyama changed his mind and grabbed him again.

"Um…Tanaka-san? Nishinoya-san?" came the voice of a concerned Yamaguchi. "Are you two okay?"

The two did nothing but groan in pain and slowly roll around on the floor for a few minutes before they finally decided to try and get up with the help of Hinata and Yamaguchi.

"Thanks, you guys." Noya grunted as he still clenched a hand to the side where Kageyama kneed him. "Uugh, this is definitely gonna bruise."

"Ah!" Hinata yelped. "Tanaka-san! You're bleeding!"

"I think…I bit my tongue…" Tanaka mumbled.

"Serves you right." Daichi said sternly. "I _was_ going to punish you all, but I think those injuries are a good enough punishment. Please don't torment each other like that anymore, all right?"

"Right!" Hinata, Tanaka, and Noya all shouted simultaneously.

"Also, Coach said he'd be giving us all pork buns after practice today, so hurry up and get changed and we can all head over to the store together."

Everyone nodded enthusiastically and hurried to get changed.

"Well, _that_ plan sure backfired." Noya grumbled as he slipped his clean shirt over his head. "I was sure that would work."

"Well, Kageyama _did_ look like he was about to laugh right before he kicked you guys." Hinata pouted.

"And now we're out of ideas!" Tanaka sighed in defeat again. "What else could be possibly do?"

"Make him watch a comedy?" Noya suggested.

"No, that takes too much preparation. We'd have to invite him over to one of our houses to do that. Plus, he has a weird sense of humor, so he might not laugh at the jokes in a comedy." Tanaka rubbed his chin in thought, but also because it still hurt from the kick. "What about you, Hinata? You have any ideas?"

Hinata looked up from packing his bag. "Why me?"

"Well, you know him the best, right? What do _you_ think would make him laugh?"

"I'm not sure. He doesn't really talk about himself that much, so I don't know what he's into other than volleyball."

Tanaka sighed. "Well I guess we'll just have to try again another day."

"Aww, that's disappointing!" Noya frowned. "I was really looking forward to it."

"It really can't be helped when we've run out of ideas. But don't worry, we'll be able to come up with better ideas tomorrow." Tanaka smirked as slipped on his jacket.

The rest of the team were soon finished changing as well and they all gathered together to walk to Ukai's store.

Hinata grumbled to himself as he walked, feeling very unfulfilled today. He got so caught up in wanting to hear Kageyama's laugh that he didn't get to spike as many tosses as he would have liked; and then they didn't even get to hear his laugh at all, so it was a complete waste. He didn't even know why he was so hung up on it in the first place. Kageyama's laugh was probably just going to sound creepy or something anyways, and that's not something he should have been looking forward to hearing.

Once they reached the store, Daichi went inside to get the pork buns as the rest of the team waited impatiently. It was quite silent until Hinata suddenly heard a faint meow from behind him, and when he turned around to look, he saw a stray calico had walked right up to him. He smiled brightly and bent down to pet her, and she instantly started to rub up against him.

Hinata brightened up even more at the gesture and decided to try picking her up and was very pleased when she started to purr. "Ah, Kageyama look! A kitty!" Hinata swung around to show him and the rest of the team.

Kageyama flinched back. "Watch where you put that thing!"

Hinata lowered his brows. "Why? Are you afraid of cats, Kageyama?"

Kageyama looked away. "No. I just…I don't think animals like me that much. I always just scare them away or they wanna try to scratch me."

"That's pretty normal for strays, though. And this one just happens to be really friendly! She even let me pick her up right away!"

"Ooh, Shouyou found a cat, how cute!" Noya hopped over with Tanaka behind him to pet the cat, and soon the rest of the team migrated over to Hinata so they could all pet her.

"What's going on over there?" Came Daichi's voice from behind them. They all turned to look and saw he had the bags of pork buns, so they hurried over to him again.

"Hinata found a cat." Suga said as he helped pass out the pork buns. "Better put her down soon, or you won't be able to eat your bun."

Hinata's stomach growled and he definitely didn't want to miss out on the free food, so he was about to put the cat down, but then saw Kageyama glancing his way. Hinata grinned and walked over to him with the cat. "Did you want to hold her?"

"N-no...she'd just hate me, so there'd be no point in frightening her like that…"

"Aw, c'mon, Kageyama! She's really sweet! And she's even purring!" Hinata shoved her into Kageyama's arms.

"W-wait, dumbass, Hinata! Don't just force her on me, like that!"

"Just give it a chance. Pet her or something."

Kageyama gulped and looked down at the cat in his arms who was still purring as loudly as ever. He moved a hand to scratch gently at her head and she promptly moved her head into Kageyama's hand and rubbed her face against it. Kageyama suddenly froze and Hinata noticed the cat had started to lick Kageyama's hand. A few more seconds of this, Kageyama eased and he even began to smile a little bit, which was rare since he only ever seemed to smile at volleyball related stuff, but it was also nice to see.

Hinata smiled too, since it was such an adorable site, and was about to turn away to get his pork bun, but he stopped abruptly because suddenly Kageyama was laughing; real, genuine laughing, and it _wasn't_ creepy sounding at all! In fact, it was the complete opposite of that. Hinata just stood there and stared in awe at the sound and the site of how soft Kageyama's face got. What the hell, was he an angel, or something?

He then realized the rest of the team had gotten quiet and he turned around and saw them all staring in awe as well. Tanaka and Noya looked like they were praying to the heavens for being blessed of such a moment, Suga had his hands folded at his chest and had a very soft smile on his face, Daichi, Asahi, and Ennoshita looked at a loss for words, and Narita, Kinoshita, and Yamaguchi all looked like they were in love.

Hinata turned back around to look at Kageyama again, who was still petting the cat and strangely oblivious of his teammates' stares for another good five minutes until he finally glanced up.

"What're you staring at?" Kageyama asked innocently.

"Ugh, what is _wrong_ with all of you?" Groaned Tsukishima when the team just started mumbling incoherently instead of responding properly.

"Heh, don't act like you weren't staring too, Tsukishima." Tanaka teased.

Tsukishima rolled his eyes and turned away. "Come on, Yamaguchi."

"Ah, coming, Tsukki!" Yamaguchi broke out of his stare and turned away as well.

"Seriously, what were you staring at?" Kageyama had finally put the cat down and walked over to the group.

Hinata giggled and shook his head playfully; deciding not to tell Kageyama in case it'd embarrass him. "See, I told you she was friendly." He passed him a pork bun. "Now you can't say all animals hate you." Kageyama took the bun from Hinata, his expression back to its usual scowl. Well, it was nice while it lasted.

Hinata bit into his own bun and the team started to go disperse and head home for the evening.

"Ryuu! Get back here, you owe me ¥1000!" Hinata heard Noya yell in the distance.

"What?! When did we bet on that? And even if we did, it's not like either of us had correct predictions anyway!"

End.


End file.
